Eleven seniors graduated this year from Holy Rosary Academy in Anchorage, an independent Catholic school. Vice Principal Tommy Welsh, who taught the graduates students throughout junior high and high school, was impressed by the group.
While a few things are different at Holy Rosary Academy this year, the school’s new principal said her goal is continuity.
“I put on my calendar ‘Ordination to the Priesthood of the God of the Universe.’ It’s one of those things that is utterly beyond comprehension,” he said.
Youth scouting programs have a long history in the United States. The most well known are the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. But newer groups like the American Heritage Girls and Trail Life USA are on the rise in recent years.
On May 23, Holy Rosary Academy graduated its largest class in the school’s 31-year history. Twelve seniors, ten full-time and two part-time, walked across the stage and into the next chapter of their lives. The Catholic Anchor asked each of the graduates about their experience at Holy Rosary and their future plans.
From June 3-6, teens from across the state will rally in Anchorage for the annual Alaska Catholic Youth Conference. The Catholic Anchor caught up with the Archdiocese of Anchorage’s Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry Matthew Beck to learn more about what to expect from the upcoming gathering.
“We want our children not to excel just academically, but to learn to embrace the truth and to freely practice the Catholic faith,” she said of her decision to send her kids to the school. “We want our children to go to school where moral values and virtues are being practiced.”
As the summer days grow shorter and autumn approaches, students across Alaska are preparing for the beginning of a new school year. Among those students are the four young men studying to become priests for the Archdiocese of Anchorage. The Catholic Anchor caught up with each of these seminarians to learn what they did over their summer break, and what the next academic year holds in store.
Although World Youth Day in Panama isn’t until the summer of 2019, Alaskan youth and young adults are already making preparations for the long journey. While there has always been an Alaskan contingency at past World Youth Days, this time, one group is making a stop along the way for a mission trip in Costa Rica.
When a young man begins to feel a draw in his heart toward the priesthood, he may not know where to turn for further help in discerning whether it is God’s will for him to pursue seminary studies and eventually ordination.